


fissure

by chidorinnn



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-24
Updated: 2015-08-24
Packaged: 2018-04-16 23:35:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4644267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chidorinnn/pseuds/chidorinnn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in which Sakura confronts Sasuke at his lowest moment, and sees his despair for what it is<br/>alternate take on the confrontation at the Land of Iron</p>
            </blockquote>





	fissure

**Author's Note:**

> Something that I wish happened in canon is Sasuke being the one to tell Sakura about the truth behind his clan's massacre. It would have been a poignant moment, with Sakura being one of the only people Sasuke personally told about his circumstances, and giving Sakura insight into Sasuke's motives so that she can understand him and support him better.

Sasuke raised his arm in the air, Chidori crackling. There was a fire behind his cold eyes that was so different from the cool, calculated gaze he used to wear, and Karin averted her eyes to his feet, because she didn’t want her last memory to be of a changed Sasuke, so different from the man she loved.

“Sasuke-kun!”

The Chidori flickered out of existence. For one long instant, Sasuke’s rage was quelled. For one long instant, he was able to forget everything – Karin dying at his feet, Danzo lying dead just a few meters away, Madara sure to return for him at any moment. Sakura had always had that effect on him. And then he looked to his old teammate’s eyes, expecting the same warmth, the same calm that could so effortlessly anchor him before, and found nothing but hesitation and wariness.

“I’ve betrayed Konoha,” she says, her voice too harsh and grating to his ears.

_She’s lying_ , Sasuke thought as his rage returned, burning and bubbling in his gut, in the back of his throat. “What’s in it for you?”

“Ever since you left, I’ve regretted not going with you.”

_She’s lying._

“Please, take me with you!”

“Prove it.”

_They’re both lying._

Sasuke never spoke much of his past. The most Karin knew, from old files that Orochimaru had pawned off on her at that, was that Sasuke was from Konoha, but he left for the same reason he’d personally recruited her alongside Suigetsu and Juugo. Surely, for him to participate in the Chuunin Exams three years ago, he had to have a team that he’d left behind with his village. Perhaps this was one of his old teammates. Or perhaps even a former lover, but Sasuke never struck her as the type to take a lover even though that was exactly what Karin wanted to be for him.

Sasuke gestured toward Karin at his feet. “Finish her off,” he said. “She’s no longer of any use to me.” Sakura wasn’t capable of something like this – he was just delaying the inevitable, waiting for her to prove everything Danzo had told him true.

Sakura walked to the red-haired girl with slow, measured steps, her hands shaking so much that the kunai she drew threatened to fall from her hands. The girl turned her head to look at her, her red eyes clouded.  _Something isn’t right. This isn’t… Sasuke-kun isn’t…_

“Sasuke…” Karin said weakly, her eyes drifting from the pink-haired girl from Konoha to Sasuke. He raised his hand much like he’d done with her before the girl stopped him, Chidori sparking to life. “Don’t…”

Sakura gasped, whirling around and leaping out of the way of Sasuke’s attack. Her breaths came out in short, almost painful gasps as Sasuke loomed before her. His Sharingan was fully activated into something she’d never seen before in his eyes, and the rage that made him clench his fists by his sides was too similar to what she’d seen in that forest three years ago, when he first woke up in that forest after Orochimaru’s attack, for it to be anything different.

“I’ll crush every last one of you,” Sasuke said as Sakura blurred before him into something dark and grotesque that he no longer recognized. She was the same as Danzo. They were all the same. “You’ll pay for what you did to the Uchiha!”

There was no time to think. Sasuke charged at her faster than Sakura could blink, and it was all she could do to drop the poisoned kunai and raise her arms to defend herself. With every punch, every kick he sent her way, Sakura blocked it all, refusing to expend any more chakra beyond what was necessary to ensure her own survival.

Sasuke summoned as much of Susanoo as his chakra would allow. The monster before him refused to take him seriously – it wouldn’t even fight him at its full strength – and then it became easier to keep his Sharingan active. His eyes burned as the monster dodged some of his blows, blocked some others with its arms. In his mind, the monster laughed – laughed at him, his clan, his  _brother_ –

“Sasuke-kun, please!” Sakura begged. “Stop this senseless fight!” But his eyes remained clouded, and his expression remained angry.  _Am I… not reaching him?_

He was going to make everything burn – every last one in that cursed village, starting with the monster before him. Itachi – Itachi gave up everything for these  _monsters_ –

“Do you know what I want?” Sasuke snarled as the monster caught his fists in its hands. Susanoo roared above him. “I want to destroy Konoha.” 

Sakura tightened her grip and took a step forward, pushing Sasuke back. All he ever wanted before was to kill the person responsible for the massacre of his clan – but for him to want to destroy the village, something had to have gone wrong. “Why?”

All of a sudden, it was Sakura that stood before him instead of a monster, pushing him back with every step she took. “Why?” she said again. “What happened after you fought your brother? What did he do to you? Why are you doing this?”

_Who hurt you?_  Sasuke staggered, his hands falling to his sides as he dipped his head down to his chest. Then he lifted his head slowly, and his Sharingan spun.

There was no time to filter what he showed her through the Tsukuyomi – so Sakura got to see everything, from his last fight with Itachi, to Madara’s explanation, to the fight with Killer Bee, to Danzo’s confirmation that everything Madara had said was true. Sasuke showed her everything, everything he could remember.

She was crying by the time the genjutsu ended. “Why…?” she gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. As awful as Danzo was, surely even he couldn’t be capable of something so horrible. “H-How could… Why would…”

Sakura flung her arms around him, and Sasuke – whether it was in exhaustion or despair or grief, Karin couldn’t tell – slumped into her, his forehead falling on her shoulder. Slowly, the darkness in his chakra began to fade, as the girl’s grip on him tightened and she pulled him closer to her as they both sank to the floor. “I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry…”

All of a sudden, every ounce of strength and rage that had kept Sasuke on his feet for so long faded. It was like he was fading, dissolving into the dust collecting around his knees, and the only thing that kept him anchored there, that kept him from fading away entirely, was Sakura, and he could no longer tell why he’s been so angry, why he was even there.

His chakra still wasn’t entirely normal, but it was the closest to it that Karin had seen in a long time. It was jarring, to see him like this, almost as much as it had been to see him crying back when he renamed the team, but it was still infinitely better than the murderous rage he’d displayed before as he cut down everyone in his path, as he callously discarded Suigetsu and Juugo when they were no longer of any use to him, when he cut through Karin herself to–

Sasuke startled. “I…” he said slowly, the words getting stuck in his throat, his mind running ahead too quickly for him to keep up with his thoughts. Suddenly, the sight of Karin lying just a little ways away, bleeding, dying, was all that he could see. He forced himself to look down at his hands – and how easy had it been to summon the Chidori he’d used to run her through?

“I…” he said in a quiet whisper, his face going utterly pale. “I didn’t mean to… I never wanted to…”

His chakra dipped into the lightest shade that Karin had ever seen. “I’m sorry…” he said, his shoulders starting to tremble.

Sakura laid her hand on top of his hand and entwined her fingers with his. It would take a lot more than a simple apology to fix the damage he’d caused, and he no doubt knew that. “We’ll fix this,” she promised. “You don’t have to fight this alone.”


End file.
